For local man John Perry, road to Ironman was a long one

JOHNSONVILLE -- In a quaint single-story house in a rural area of Rensselaer County, an unassuming workingman has been training for and accomplishing feats even he once assumed would be beyond his interest--or capabilities.

John Perry, 50, of Northern Turnpike in Johnsonville, is a truck driver who delivers bulk cement. Most days, he goes into work at five or six in the morning and leaves 12 or 13 hours later; in his off time, he is an Ironman.

Last year, Perry competed in the Lake Placid Ironman, a grueling test of fortitude and endurance pitting contestants against themselves in a 2.4 mile swim on Mirror Lake, followed by a 112 mile bike course through the High Peaks, and concluding with a 26.2 mile run to the finish.

"You need to know you can do a 26.2 mile marathon. You need to know what it feels like to sit on a bike and peddle for several more hours just to get through the day," Perry said.

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Perry never thought he would be able to finish an Ironman, much less have any interest in doing so. It was only in the midst of personal turmoil that Perry found himself in need of the sport, and it was only at the end of a long and fraught road that Perry completed his first Ironman.

Perry lifted weights and was an interior lineman for Lansingburgh High before going into the Marines, but at those points in his life he could not conceive himself ever willingly entering an event like a marathon.

"I remember watching (a marathon) on the Wide World of Sports as a teenager and thinking, 'Who in their right minds would want to do that?'" said Perry, but in the early '90s Perry and three friends entered a triathlon, just to see if they could finish.

"I said, 'I like the water, so I'll swim," Perry explained, "but at that time in my life I really didn't have any respect for swimmers because they 'just' swim--what are they doing hard?" Up until that point the only swimming Perry had done was in the Marines, and, as Perry said, "that's not teaching you how to go far, that's teaching you how to survive."

In 1992, Perry and his friends entered the Pine Bush Triathlon in Albany as a three-man relay team.

"I died. It took me 30 minutes to do 400 yards," Perry said, but during the next decade Perry would still occasionally compete in local and regional events, such as the XTERRA triathlon at Grafton Lakes State Park. Working a full time job, Perry said he found time to train by combining his workouts with his children's schedules.

Perry, who involved his two children in ice skating at the time, would train by practicing on the ice with his son and daughter and going to the local YMCA when he found time, but it wasn't until he went through a painful divorce in 2003--nearly a decade after his first triathlon--that he began going "full bore" into racing. He said the trials and racing kept him grounded during the emotional turmoil.

"I could've been one of those guys that went to a gin mill and drank all the time," Perry explained. Rather than turning to the bottle, Perry joined the YMCA, met his now wife Vickie, and began practicing two or three times a week; by 2005 he was aiming to compete in Lake Placid Ironman, an individual competition he was to enter with two friends. Yet that goal was not to be achieved until three years later.

In 2005, while on a job transporting instruction equipment, steel was unloaded from Perry's trailer when the man moving the steel dropped the load on Perry's leg. It shattered his leg, ribs, and caused liver damage. In the surgeries that followed, Perry was told that he might not be able to run again--with that possibility looming over his head, Perry redoubled his efforts to recover.

Perry, on leave from his job, increased his time at the Y to nearly every day, and attended every physical therapy session, yet his renewed efforts backfired. As his wife Vickie Malossi-Perry gently teased, it was because he "refused to sit still." In a fall, Perry broke his leg again, but on a different bone--and was what he believes led to his being laid off from his job.

"Before that, I would worry about my time, but after that--I could come in first, I could come in last; it didn't matter," said Perry.

After more than six months of surgeries and physical therapy, and having regained the ability to run, Perry found a new job, and looked forward to finally entering an Ironman.

With months of training under his belt, took his first few strokes in Mirror Lake in 2008. It was pouring, but to Perry such is part and parcel with competing in outdoor events.

"In 2008 I raced in rain all day. It poured from the minute I got in the water until I crossed the finish line at 10 o'clock that night," Perry said. He finished that, and proceeded to compete again in 201--except that time it was hot.

"Fat guys don't like heat," said Perry, "we'd rather have nice and cool. I like the sun, I'd rather have it sunny, but it was hot. I was expecting to do a little bit better than 2008 just because it wasn't raining."

Until the cycling portion, Perry was doing better than his 2008 time, but then he had the misfortune of eating a banana that turned his stomach. He was forced to dismount his bike, and survived on saltine crackers until the end of the race.

"I think I walked the last nine miles. As they'll call it--you're part of the 'walking dead,'" said Perry.

Now 50, with two Ironmans under his belt, Perry could call it quits, and no one would dare claim he had not pushed himself to the extent of his abilities--but he is not a man to rest on his laurels. Instead, Perry has built a homemade training course, and is aiming to compete in 2014 Lake Placid Ironman.

Behind his homestead on a hill, he runs on a trail he built through the woods and bikes on the county routes that crisscross the local country, and the last piece of the puzzle that will give him his own course is the pool he recently installed. While too small to swim laps, Perry received a harness that will allow him to swim in place from Concord Pools, the company from whom he bought the pool.

With his children grown and a course in his backyard, it is easier for Perry to find time to train as he prepares for his upcoming Ironman and, maybe, just maybe, another go when he turns 60.

"I have, in my head, two more at that distance," Perry said.

Perry attributes his success in triathlons to the iron mindset instilled in him by his Marine training and to the circumstances that pushed him to the extent of his abilities, but for grueling events like the Ironman competition Perry found another attribute equally as important--having fun.

As the Ironman said, "If you don't go into it to have fun, it's going to be a rough day."